Catching up...

Phewf... what a week this has been. I'm writing now on Saturday, with only 1 day left to go (well... really 2 days... it's 5:30 in the morning here). I'm still sitting at the Workforce Check-in at Darling Harbour but with only 5 volunteers to check in this morning at 4 a.m. this is now the first time I've had to just sit and take a breather. So, until any emergencies come blaring through the radio, I'll take you through our week....

MONDAY, JULY 14
It's here! Time to begin! The clock at St. Mary's still says 1 day to go until the big events, but there are pilgrims flooding the city and volunteers wandering around (some wander right into our office, unexpectedly, from another country, without being accepted as volunteers, wondering where they are staying and what their jobs will be... those are fun to deal with).

Our Monday actually started at the turn of the clock. We were still at the office late Sunday night and, at midnight, decided to walk down to St. Mary's Cathedral where rehearsals for the Stations of the Cross were beginning. We figured we would be busy on Friday and not able to see the real event in action so followed the actors from St. Mary's to the Domain to see the first two stations in the dark and quiet of a sleeping Sydney. Like in Toronto, the procession of the Stations of the Cross will be a huge production with not only road closures but tens of thousands of pilgrims and city-dwellers able to participate in the prayers as it weaves its way through the city. How dramatic and beautiful in the quiet of the night... we can't imagine how much more so with the force of pilgrims praying along its Way on Friday.

After some sleep and a real start to Monday, I headed over to the Convention Center at Darling Harbour for my first day of Workforce Check-in. With only a few volunteers to greet and brief, I had most of my day to set up my work station and prepare for the week ahead. David also did some moving... from his office on College St. to WYDMOC (World Youth Day Main Operation Center... where all the big decisions happen... David likens it to CTU on 24... ?). This is where he will be spending most of his week, with the exception of some exciting events that we'll get to later in the week....

Both of us took a couple of hours in the evening to go to our first WYD event - Fr. Tom was speaking on Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati at St. Mary's Cathedral, with an evening of music and prayer facilitated by members of Catholic Christian Outreach. This was a super event for us for multiple reasons, among them (1) finally a time to sit and be still after weeks of rush, rush, rush, (2) super music, and (3) hurray! Our first time to meet up with our friend Dan Moynihan, from London! The chatting was brief (and hushed... we were in a Church after all) but we know we will have a few more opportunities to be with each other in the coming days.

I'll skip the part about how we had to go back to the office for a few more hours.

Okay... this didn't happen on Monday... this was last week. The Pope chair showed up in the middle of our hallway, as did this group of helpful nuns.

And here's the Pope peeking over David's shoulder, politely reminding us there is one day left to WYD.

Heading to the Stations of the Cross at midnight... we found some Roman soldiers lighting torches.

The Stations will begin with the Last Supper at St. Mary's Cathedral.

And, later, back at the office... Elena, Hannah, Libby, and me finally completed the To Do list (please ignore any writing you see on there... I promise you... we finished it).

TUESDAY, JULY 15
Okay, now WYD is officially here. My commute to the office for a 7 a.m. start is pretty short. Roll out of bed at the Novotel at Darling Harbour, where all of our Workforce Team is staying, and practically right into the Convention Center. David has to walk a bit further to WYDMOC, but we're still both really happy to be closer to the events than we would be in our Maroubra House (it's also warner at the hotel and with a cleaner bathroom. Incidentally.).

So today was the day to fix flaws in our system. Like the fact that we had 70 Catering Crew members arrive for check-in (9 a.m.) before we had allocated anyone to help me to do the check-in (10 a.m.). And the fact that Catering decided they didn't need any crew, so what to do with 70 extra people? AND we had no Information booth on site so pilgrims mosied on in to our Workforce Check-in and asked us a trillion questions in a trillion different languages. So - busy all day long.

David... did more things in WYDMOC. (It's secret stuff... we can't divulge.)

Main event of the day - The Opening Mass with Cardinal Pell. This was taking place at Barangaroo, which is the main WYD site for the week and just a kilometre or two from Darling Harbour. I caught some glimpses on the big screen in the middle of the Harbour but I think David and I are going to need to buy WYD: Unedited, the DVD to see what happened.

Other excitement of the day - a rush request for staff to run the microwaves in Catering Marquis 1 at Darling Harour about half an hour before pilgrims started lining up for food. I had just handed over my shift so went down to join them and, very quickly, found myself standing in front of a bank of about 15 microwaves, all revved up for 5 minutes each, with three pilgrim meals inside. In the fastest moving production line I've ever seen, we cut open the food bags, crammed them in the microwave, set 5 minutes, went on to the next, when 5 minutes were up, placed 4 chicken and 2 veggie in each bag, added plates and cutlery, and handed that over with a another bag of water, rolls, fruit, and Tim Tams. (Yes, the food comes out of a bag and is microwaved... and made with love.) It was madness, but funny, and good to get out of the office for a while.

David tries on his volunteer uniform. Just not quite the right size. Poor long-armed fella.

These banners are all over the city in, apparently, Sydney's largest flag campaign ever. We like the red and blue ones best.

Later that night, after the Opening Mass, there were fireworks over Barangaroo. Neither of us got to Mass, but dashed out of work in time to see the fireworks.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 16
Day number 2 of Workforce Check-in, and things were a lot more organized. Kind of. My team of Pat, Lucita, and Robyn were here early so we looked competant when the first group of volunteers arrived. I also had our "prizes" to hand out, so a day of giving people gifts isn't a bad day. And because all of our days have run together in a blur of no-sleep, I can't remember what else we did that day.

David - WYDMOC (still secret).

A visit to the Vocations Expo to discern my vocation. This is the Basilian booth with Fr. Glen, Miriam (not a Basilian) and Fr. Tom.

We had a chance to run down to St. Mary's Cathedral and Hyde Park, where we had a visit with the WYD cross and icon.

THURSDAY, JULY 17
Now that we're pros at this... I took the day off. After a 7 a.m. start at Check-In, I left everything in the capable hands of Volunteer Rebecca and went to the Sydney Opera House. Today is the day of the Pope's arrival and I will be riding on the upper level of his cruise ship with the pilgrims. Technically, I'm still "working" and making sure no overly-enthusiastic, camera-waving pilgrim falls overboard but am happy there will also be moments to just enjoy and also wave my own camera.

And today is David's first day on duty at the Papal Ancillary events. Good news: for the rest of the week, he basically gets to follow the Pope around. Bad news: my poor husband does not have the required requested clothing of a white shirt and black pants (just didn't fit into our suitcase). So he was able to borrow some clothes from fellow tall and kind co-worker, Steve Lawrence. Good news: Steve lent David his wedding outfit. Bad news: Fashions have changed since Steve got married, and Steve is a just a little bit shorter than David. That outfit, coupled with David's WYD Staff jacket with sleeves that go just past his elbows didn't really give him any boost of confidence (it's true... he looked like a fourth grader who had just had a growth spurt).

At any rate, clothing aside, today David travelled to Mary McKillop Shrine, where Pope Benedict XVI greeted the Sisters of St. Joseph and stood just a few metres away from David. The meeting was short but beautiful, and the Pope announced that Blessed Mary McKillop will soon be Australia's first Saint.

From there, David (changed clothes and) rushed to Barangaroo to meet up with his cousin Ashley and her friend Matt, where they would all watch the events from the VIP section. Meanwhile, I was on the boat and feeling like a celebrity, what with all the people gathered along the waterfront to wave at me and cheer as the boat went by (it was either me or the Pope, one of the two). I caught a glimpse of him through waving flags as he boarded the boat and, again, as he departed. Glimpse or no glimpse, the experience of enthusiasm and prayer with the pilgrims on the boat was, in a word, super-duper.

And(!) - one of my Salt + Light coworkers, Kris Dmytrenko, also had the opportunity to meet the Holy Father... he talks about this amazing experience here: http://www.saltandlighttv.org/blog/index.php?paged=2 (and Kris looked pretty happy when he was telling me his story later... although I did ask why he didn't think to ask the Holy Father for an exclusive interview with S+L Television).

Boarding the Pope Boat... Salt+ Light is on the boat. That's Wally, Mary Rose, and Sebastien.

What to do while waiting two hours while the Pope's boat is loaded... stand on the top deck and have your picture taken with people in fancy outfits (referring to these pilgrims' national dress, not my volunteer uniform).

To Pope arrives to board and cheering ensued... pilgrims to the left and the white speck to the right is Pope Benedict.

Sailing into Sydney Harbour... city skyline coming into view.

And now rounding the corner of the Sydney Opera House. These are some of the many friends that came out to greet me/the Pope.

And Barangaroo... jam-packed and looking so much better than when it was just cement and fences. It's amazing what a few pilgrims will do to spruce up a place. Estimated number pictured here: over 150,000.

And Pope Benedict departing the boat. He was greeted by Aboriginal elders... both parties seemed excited by this meeting. The Pope really is a smiley guy.

Now a picture of us out of dinner (we invited the Pope but he had made prior arrangements). That's me, David, Ashley, and Matt.


Gillian and David. You can't miss us. We're the pair in the glowing red and blue.


And later, since we were slacking off work anyway, we met up with Dan.

And then went to see Matt Maher. Awesome.

FRIDAY, JULY 18

And, just like that, the week has flown by. We're at our last day of big events here at Darling Harbour. Check-in works like clockwork by now, with the only minor hiccup of 100 unexpected volunteers. What's 100 in the face of 1000?

So my day in the office was good... but not as good as David's. I received a phone call from him at about 2:30-ish, that went something like this:

David: Hi. How are you?

Gillian: Good. How are you? What's going on over there?

David: Good. I just met the Pope.

Unfortunately, I was on the radio with someone else and there were a few dozen people lining up at the doorway and at my desk so I had to go without hearing the full story (I know... bad wife with no priorities). But when I finally got to speak with him, he told me the meeting had happened at Sacred Heart, where Pope Benedict was meeting with disadvantaged youth. The ceremony, David said, was quite moving, and the young people had some amazing stories and overcome some horrendous situations. Following their meeting individually with the Holy Father, David was among staff and volunteers that were moved to the back by the police and, when the Holy Father walked past them, he stopped and shook each one of their hands. I will leave David to tell you the story in much better detail, including what he said to the Pope. But, in the meantime, I am a very excited wife reporting back that David has a new friend and we're adding the Pope to our Christmas card list.

My day ended with saying good-bye to some our week's volunteers, catching a glimpse of the Stations (I missed when they were actually at Darling Harbour but I caught some on the big screen), and avoiding pilgrim food for supper.

To celebrate another day, we were off to the Opera House for an 8 p.m. concert of Beethoven. Beautiful music with the unfortunate effect of serving as lullabies... we both head-bobbed through the entire performance. Nonetheless, we really appreciate any time off that we can take to be pilgrims (or, at least, regular people who don't work 16 hours in a day).

Some happy volunteers at the end of their week. They really do look happy. That makes me happy.

SATURDAY, JULY 19

And here we are! It's now today and pilgrims are making their way to Randwick via the Harbour Bridge and Darling Habour. Apparently almost 3,000 have gone through in the last two hours. After I'm finished up here, I will meet David (who is hanging out with the Pope today, again) and we'll make our own way to Randwick. We'll pack to be overnight pilgrims but may chicken out in the end and just come back to Novotel for a few hours of sleep. I'm still working in Workforce Check-In but hopefully David has a chance to pilgrim with Dan or hang out with S+Lers.

We're tired but we are so happy. This has been a great experience for us - challenging and life-giving in all the right places. We'll tell you more in the days to come....